MVD Visual: Starbright (2026) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of MVD Entertainment Group

Francesco Lucente, that Italian born Canadian resident filmmaker, for good or for ill started a working relationship recently with MVD Entertainment Group.  Starting out with the Blu-ray disc release of his 2007 anti-Iraq War drama Badland followed by a restored release of his 1987 16mm coming-of-age debut Paradise Bungalows, the director has apparently sought to publish and release the remnants of his filmography to unsuspecting viewers unlucky enough to blind buy or worse yet review them.  Third and most recently on his list is the new 2026 fantasy adventure epic Starbright which seems to combine Badland’s running time and gunfire with a Disneyfied Hallmark aesthetic.  While Starbright is the most polished and watchable of the three recent releases by this director, it goes without saying Lucente has given yours truly some of the most taxing and excruciating reviewing homework assignments since Arrow Video’s Nico Mastorakis collection who by comparison is magisterial.

 
A young farm girl on the edge of town named Aisling (Alexandra Dowling) lives with her grandparents Bud (Ted Levine) and Teresa (Becky Ann Baker) whom she also cares for full time.  Wanting a shot at life in the outside world, her chance comes in the unlikely form of an eclipse followed by a star falling and crashing into the Earth.  From this star arises an enigmatic, eccentric old man named Raphael (legendary Raiders of the Lost Ark actor John Rhys-Davies) who doesn’t seem human or from this world.  Picking up the star, he places it in a necklaced heart locket which he gives to Aisling for safe-keeping.  However, three prison escapees on the run from the law also see the star crash and decide to follow and even try to steal it back from Aisling.  Not if the handsome heroic Joshua (Diego Boneta) can help it who joins her escape from the bandits while the ever peculiar but lovable Raphael maintains the same sense of half-amused calm even as bullets are flying past him in ridiculous shootout scenarios.

 
Originally announced in 2010 as a 3D fairytale starring Sarah Bolger and James Earl Jones in the Raphael role before entering development Hell which forced both actors to drop out before the parts were recast with Alexandra Dowling and John Rhys-Davies, Starbright in theory and on paper is a heartwarming modern-day fable full of awe and wonderment amid some old-fashioned action thriller perils.  In practice, running almost as long as the 2½ hour Badland though sporting better actors and scope 2.35:1 widescreen cinematography by Francesco Di Giacomo, Starbright is overwrought and torpid.  Basically a 90-minute movie that completely overstays its welcome with zero dramatic momentum or timing or interesting well-rounded characters, despite having a Dolby Atmos soundtrack the score by Ludek Drizhal recalls the criticisms viewers had for Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun and particularly John Williams’ score. 

 
If anything can carry you through this kind of cringeworthy mess besides Ted Levine’s no-nonsense grandfather, it is John Rhys-Davies’ charm and warmth that makes us forget the terrible clunky dialogue and overall absurdity of the project.  The kind of actor who can read Edward D. Wood Jr. as Shakespeare, Rhys-Davies somehow keeps you from abandoning ship altogether which I felt myself inclined towards doing more than a few times.  Alexandra Dowling as the angelic innocent heroine who gets caught in the middle of an all-out war between herself and criminals trying to blast or kidnap their way into acquiring the necklace with the star.  The heavies are your usual stock trade angry-looking bad guys and their whole presence, like the extended exchanges between Dowling and Diego Boneta as a romantic relationship begins developing between them, feels extraneous. 

 
Given a limited release before landing on Blu-ray disc via MVD Entertainment in a 2-disc special edition, Starbright comes to home video with more than you’d expect in terms of extras.  Replete with an entire CD soundtrack album, a making-of documentary, a short film by the director entitled This Old Man, deleted scenes, a blooper reel and some poetry from John Rhys-Davies, as with Badland and Paradise Bungalows, MVD has gone all out in accommodating this director’s needs.  While I’m happy for his success and newfound working relationship with the distribution company, Francesco Lucente’s work itself and the task set forth of forging ahead through one of them is enough to make film bloggers who relish in bad movie Hell reconsider their lots in life.  Seriously, these have been some of the most arduous, completely frustrating assignments for anyone interested in writing about film.  I’m well aware you can’t always get what you want or need for that matter, but I wouldn’t wish an eternity of nothing but this director’s work on my worst enemy.  Pee-ew!

--Andrew Kotwicki